WHY DIDN'T LINDA DIXON OR KATRINA FOLEY ANSWER THE PILOT'S QUESTION? (No, this is not a picture of Dixon and Foley)
In Thursday's (2/8) Daily Pilot, Costa Mesa's five Councilmembers were asked a simple question by the newspaper: "Would you support a citywide program that requires developers to provide affordable housing?"
Mansoor, Bever and Leece all answered the question correctly by essentially saying that such a program--which was before the City Council two meetings ago--would cause the price of housing to rise for those who do not qualify for the subsidized affordable housing as the developers simply add this tax under a different name to the rest of their units.
Mayor Pro Tem Bever also used the actual number of $ 19,000 per new housing unit that some in the city want developers to pay for each housing unit they build. In other words, if that plan had been put into effect, and if you wanted to buy a new home, you could expect it to cost $19,000 more than it should in order to subsidize affordable housing someplace else in the city.
Mayor Mansoor correctly told the paper that "This will hurt the very middle class you are trying to help."
Councilmember Leece spoke of market driven approaches to help with affordable housing.
These were good answers.
But, the real story here is that ultra-liberal Councilmembers Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley did not respond to the paper's question.
Wonder why?
Here's our opinion. Dixon and Foley are largely supported by liberals in the city who are in favor of forcing developers to provide affordable housing. At the same time, Dixon and Foley need to stay in the good graces of mega-developers such as the Segerstrom Company--which is involved right now in developments in South Coast Metro. The housing tax of $19,000 per unit would cost these developers many millions of dollars initially before being passed on to home buyers. And, by adding this amount to each unit, the units might be priced right out of the market.
So, it appears that Dixon and Foley were, as usual, trying to have things both ways by not answering the Pilot's question.
We doubt that Dixon and Foley fooled anyone with more than a two digit IQ by ducking the question, but what it did was give them cover both with developers and their liberal pals and kept them from actually having to take a stand for something.
We see you Dixon and Foley. You can't hide.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
